Darren Aronofsky signs two-year deal with 20th Century Fox

November 19, 2010 - By Liam Goodwin

20th Century Fox announced today that it has signed a two-year deal with The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky and his production company Protozoa Pictures. The deal will see Aronofsky develop movies for 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures, the first of which will be The Wolverine with Hugh Jackman.

Aronofsky has a good relationship with Fox as both The Wrestler and Black Swan were distributed by Fox Searchlight, and he is (hopefully) going to help them out by making a kick-ass Wolverine movie.

Here’s part of the announcement released by the studio, which includes the first official confirmation by them that Aronofsky will helm The Wolverine:

“Darren’s vision has brought audiences some of the most original and memorable stories and characters in recent motion picture history,” said Fox Searchlight heads, Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley. “We at Fox witnessed this first hand with his work on ‘The Wrestler,’ and ‘Black Swan,’ and now, on ‘The Wolverine,’ which will be an exciting take on that iconic figure and on the genre itself. We can’t wait to see what else Darren has in store for us.”

Added Emma Watts, president of production, Twentieth Century Fox: “We’re excited Darren is going to bring his unique vision to ‘The Wolverine’ and we take great satisfaction that Fox, irrespective of the size of his films, continues to provide a home for his extraordinary talent.”

Filming on The Wolverine will begin next April from a script by The Usual Suspects writer Christopher McQuarrie. The story takes Wolverine to Japan where he falls for a woman named Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord.

No release date has been set yet, but it will probably be sometime in 2012.